Astounding Investigative Reporting With Confidential Corp. Docs on Tobacco

admin · Sep 4, 2013

I'm channeling my inner Julian Assange. I think you guys are going to love this.
I have the most complete history ever of Three Nuns pipe tobacco, including leaked corporate documents that include blend recipes, marketing considerations, production house changes, and myriad additional pieces of top secret information.
We are tying together investigative journalism and editorial / opinion, along with a review of the latest incarnation of Three Nuns.
It all starts here:

Three Nuns & The Shrieks of No Perique!

pylorns · Sep 4, 2013

I actually have a tin I bought a month or so ago and find it to be ok. But the question remains - now that perique production is more stabilized, would Mac Baren consider going back to the original blend of adding it in?

admin · Sep 4, 2013

It's not Mac Baren's decision. Imperial Tobacco owns the rights. They are so big, and the pipe tobacco market is so small that this is not even on their radar.
Even if it gets on their radar from this publicity, it's still so small for them that it would be hard for anyone over there to care. It likely wouldn't change their world in anyway whatsoever.
In short, the smart money ain't on that.

spartan · Sep 4, 2013

Great article. I would have liked to taste it with perique and see all the old farts rejoice in their lazy-boys as they welcome back an old friend... but I suppose the DFK version will have to do.
It's a shame that there seems little chance of this ever happening though.
Not to worry, so much other perique goodness out there just waiting to be set ablaze!

admin · Sep 4, 2013

@rothnh

Thanks for the comments and compliments. Please allow me to correct you on one thing though.
It is not a VA/Bur.
Burley has a separate and different classification as Dark Fired Kentucky.
This is why we have the link at the end of E. Roberts review as follows:

* Reference the Kentucky & Tennessee Tobacco Production Guide http://www2.ca.uky.edu/agc/pubs/id/id160/id160.pdf particularly pages 9-11, for an exhaustive technical look at dark leaf varieties.
http://pipesmagazine.com/blog/pipe-tobacco-reviews/three-nuns-walk-into-a-review/

misterlowercase · Sep 4, 2013

A comprehensive article, I like the approach you took in compiling it, most excellent sir!

papipeguy · Sep 4, 2013

Very good article. Will this be the next Throw-Down Challenge? Could be interesting.

yohanan · Sep 4, 2013

This is a great article, appreciate all the sleuthing that you have done. I have not tried the older version with perique, but I do have the "now" version in the cellar, and will look forward to trying it in the near future. : puffy

:

romeowood · Sep 4, 2013

Hell of an article, cap'n. You realize, though, that the FDA file on you is getting thicker by the day.... :crazy:

pylorns · Sep 5, 2013

Since I don't know the tobacco industry very well does Imperial have a marketing arm when it comes to pipe tobacco? This has my curiosity now - about the various companies and who owns what... since I'm in marketing myself in a different industry I pinged Sutliff with a bunch of questions, maybe I'll hear something back.

blendtobac · Sep 5, 2013

Having read the article with great interest, I was amused by the reference to "manufactured Perique". Somewhere in my box of flavorings is a sample bottle labelled "Perique". I've smelled it and wasn't impressed and I don't even want to try using it, but I'm sure that this is what they used for the process (or something very similar). There's always someone who wants to make things faster and cheaper, but I've never come across any of these products that are as good as the original.
Russ

cortezattic · Sep 5, 2013

I got the impression that it was artificially flavored leaf (i.e., cased), so it just tastes like Perique. Like you say, who knows?

After giving it a little thought, the Acadian Perique idea makes a lot of sense. The answer probably depends to a certain extent on the nuances implied when Brits use the word "manufactured", which to Americans implies a process, rather than a concoction.

kcghost · Sep 5, 2013

Excellent research in finding all these documents and piecing it together. Kudos!
As for the New Three Nuns it is the old story of the putting lipstick on a pig.

cigrmaster · Sep 6, 2013

Kevin, I will shriek, I will bemoan, I will cry like a baby about the loss of a great blend. It is my God given right as an American to bitch and moan when I don't get my way, I want my Maypo. :lol:
Great investigative journalism, really interesting stuff. I think you should buy the rights to Three Nuns, have Greg re create the original and you can retire on the billions of dollars you make. You will be a hero to pipe smokers all over the world, your name will go down in history as the guy who brought Three Nuns back to it's former glory. I bet we could even have a bronze statue made of you smoking your pipe, and holding a tin of Three Nuns. People would come from all over the world to see your statue, flowers would be placed there everyday, people would make shrines at the base of the statue, you will be immortal.

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